BUNDY MAY BE TALKING

Ted Bundy began confessing Friday to about 30 murders of young women in five western states, said Volusia State Attorney John Tanner, a spiritual adviser and friend to the killer.

Tanner, reached at home Friday night, said he had spoken to law enforcement agents who met that afternoon with Bundy at Florida State Prison in Starke."It's my information that murders are being solved," Tanner said in a story in Saturday's Orlando Sentinel. "This is coming from law enforcement officers who are participating in these meetings. The information they are giving me is that he is giving them verifiable hard facts concerning unsolved murders."

Tanner would not identify the officers who spoke to him. But he said Bundy met Friday with Robert Kepple of the Washington attorney general's office, and Bill Hagmaier of the FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit in Quantico, Va.

Detective Dennis Couch of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said Friday night that his scheduled 11/2 hour interview with Bundy on Sunday should be enough time to solve any cases in Utah.

"I suppose if we got right down to the basics, he should give me enough information to tell us where we are," Couch said. "The rest of it is up to thecourts and the governors."

Bundy is scheduled to meet this weekend with authorities from Colorado, Utah and Idaho. Tanner and his wife met with the killer for about two hours Friday morning, before the law enforcement meetings began.

Police have mentioned Bundy as a suspect in as many as three dozen slayings in the early and mid-1970s in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Colorado. The victims were young women between the ages of 16 and 26. Many of them were never found.

Bundy has frequently met with investigators and reporters over the years but has refused to talk specifically about any of the cases. He has talked in abstract terms about what a killer would do in such situations.

Bundy, scheduled to die in Florida's electric chair Tuesday for the 1978 murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach of Lake City, has tried to trade information about the unsolved murders for a delay in his execution. Gov. Bob Martinez turned down the offer.

Tanner has been meeting regularly with Bundy for about two years. He said the killer told him about a year ago that he wanted to confess to everything he'd done.

Tanner, a defense attorney before being elected in November, said he specifically did not discuss details of any of the cases with Bundy because he is a lawyer.

"I know people won't necessarily accept this, but (Bundy) says it's the right thing to do," the state attorney said. "People think he's just trying to buy time."

Bundy called Tanner on Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down his latest appeal and Martinez signed the death warrant.

Tanner said Bundy told him: "John, you know I want to tell everything that happened. I want you to help me. I want the governor to know that I want to tellit all, but it will take longer than six days."

Tanner said he then began contacting Florida law-enforcement agencies and the governor's office.

He believes it could take as long as several months for Bundy to tell detectives everything they want to know, including where the remains of some of the victims are.

Tanner came under a lot of criticism Wednesday when Martinez and other state officials announced that he was trying to negotiate a stay of execution for Bundy.